The US Military Has Been Using Substandard Firearms For Over A Century

[Ash]

The Hakim/AG42B/Rasheed and the MAS 49 & 49/56 discarded with the gas piston as well. Now, none of these were fully auto, but they used the same gas system as the AR before the AR was even a concept. Don't get me wrong, I do not have much love for the system, and France, Sweden, and Egypt hardly fall in the same category as the US or the Soviet Union.

Ash

 

[amprecon]

Regarding the .30-06 to .308 change, as I understand it, the advancement in powders after WWII allowed us to achieve the same ballistics with the fmj 150gr. round in the .308 as the .30-06 with smaller case capacity. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it allowed faster cycling since the action didn't have to move as far to chamber the shorter round.

 

[Cosmoline]

Our military has done a dang good job over the past 100 years, what with being saddled with these "inferior" weapons.

No argument there.

 

[Cosmoline]

Regarding the .30-06 to .308 change, as I understand it, the advancement in powders after WWII allowed us to achieve the same ballistics with the fmj 150gr. round in the .308 as the .30-06 with smaller case capacity

If advances in powders was really the reason, then how were the Germans able to do more with the shorter 8x57JS than we could with the .30'06, before the .30'06 was even invented?

 

[AZ Jeff]

Knock it off, Cosmo. Now you are claiming the SIGNIFICANTLY shorter .308 case is volumetrically no better than the 8x57. That's just NOT the case, pardon the pun.

 

[30Cal]

Regarding the .30-06 to .308 change, as I understand it, the advancement in powders after WWII allowed us to achieve the same ballistics with the fmj 150gr. round in the .308 as the .30-06 with smaller case capacity.

Not really. What works in one works in the other when you are comparing similar bullets.

Keep in mind that the 30-06 began life as the 30-03, firing a 220gr RN bullet. The advantages of the spitzer design were quickly evident and in 1906, the 30-06 was born--the same case with a slighly shorter neck firing a 150gr bullet. Existing M1903's were easily converted to accomodate the 30-06 cartridge.

The powers that be wanted the M1 Garand chambered in '06 because they had lots of it on hand.

Ty